STORYLINE:

Defending champion Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish spoke about the route for the 2019 Tour de France after it was announced in Paris on Thursday (25th October).

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

Next year's Tour de France will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the showcase race's iconic yellow jersey.

With France emerging from the carnage of World War I, the Tour offered its beacon of hope to the war-ravaged nation.

In 1919, the race leader's yellow jersey — which has become cycling's most iconic symbol — was introduced.

"It came straight out of the trenches, born from the rubble of a wounded France," Tour race director Christian Prudhomme said Thursday, unveiling the route for the July 6-28 race.

Joining Prudhomme on stage were five-time Tour winners Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain.

Only four riders, including Jacques Anquetil, have won five Tours; Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles for doping.

British rider Chris Froome will try to win his fifth title next year, but will have to depose his Team Sky teammate Geraint Thomas over the 3,460-kilometre (2,145-mile) race.

It features seven flat stages for sprinters, five hilly ones for all-rounders, seven mountain stages — five with summit finishes — one team time trial and one individual time trial.

The big climbs start in the Pyrenees before hitting the Alps.

The Tour has less of the Hors Categorie (Beyond Classification) climbs than before - those HC climbs are the most gruelling.

Instead, the race has more of the Category Two climbs — which are noticeably less difficult and favour attacking strategies.

Sky has won six of the past seven races, often controlling them in the mountains by easily repelling attacks.

This has given the team an aura of invincibility and the race a predictable tone.

With closer racing needed, the two time trials combine for a relatively low 54 kilometres, meaning specialists such as Froome have less chance to gain significant time advantages.

The race begins with a flat stage for sprinters around the city of Brussels and stays there the next day for the 27 kilometre team time trial.

After leaving Belgium, the Tour snakes through the Champagne and Lorraine regions.

Stage 4 for sprinters starts in Reims — the Champagne-producing city where 25 French kings were crowned in its cathedral.

With the race leaving the Alsace region, Stage 7 is the longest at 230 kilometres and made for sprinters.

The next day's stage is a hilly one, with several short but sharp climbs from Macon to Saint-Etienne.

The first rest day is July 16 in Albi in southern France, followed by a sprint stage before the Tour enters the high Pyrenees.

Stage 14 on July 20 features finishes with a climb up the Tourmalet pass, one of the most famed in Tour history.

Riders tackle three days of Alpine climbing on stages 18-20, featuring an ascent up the famed Galibier and imposing Iseran — standing 2,770 metres — and culminating with a relentless 33.4 kilometre trek up to the ski resort of Val Thorens.

After the weary peloton is flown towards Paris, the race ends the next day with its processional showcase stage on the Champs-Elysees.

Palais des Congres, Paris, France. 25th October 2018.

1. 00:00 Wide of cyclists walking on stage

2. 00:04 Mark Cavendish on stage

3. 00:10 Christopher Froome on stage

4. 00:19 Geraint Thomas on stage

5. 00:30 Froome and Thomas going back to their seats

6. 00:40 Geraint Thomas

7. 00:43 Christopher Froome

8. 00:47 Julian Alaphilippe

9. 00:51 Mark Cavendish

10. 00:57 Primoz Roglic

11. 01:01 Five-time Tour de France winners Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, and Miguel Indurain, Raymond Poulidor, French former professional bicycle racer known as "The Eternal Second", and Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme

(UPSOUND Raymond Poulidor "Between us four we have won 15 Tour de France")

12. 01:09 Pan of Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, Miguel Indurain, Raymond Poulidor on stage

13. 01:21 Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme arriving on stage with map of Tour de France 2019 on large screen

14. 01:26 SOUNDBITE (English): Geraint Thomas, 2018 Tour de France winner:

"It's solid, it's tough as ever, but it's hard to take in it all when it's so quick but there are some big stages, obviously a lot of climbs finishing over 2,000 metres, medium mountain days, you know, look hard as well so yes it's going to be a tough race."

15. 01:42 Close up Thomas' eyes

16. 01:47 SOUNDBITE (English) Geraint Thomas, 2018 Tour de France winner:

"Yeah I think that will be really nice, I've raced in Belgium quite a lot before in the past, so yeah it will be nice to go back and obviously team time trial which we are normally pretty good at. It will be nice to try and try and win that for a change, rather than second and third, which we always seem to be."

17. 02:03 Geraint Thomas talking to journalists

18. 02:07 SOUNDBITE (English): Mark Cavendish, British sprinter who has won 30 Tour de France stages:

"It's flat enough for me, it's 21 flat dates isn't it, but yes, when you've got six or seven spin opportunities that's good, that's fair and there is that, you know. We've got the climbs. I think although there's more climbing, probably more altitude metres, it's still probably (doesn't finish sentence).... 2018 was near-on impossible to reach Paris for most of the sprinters - just the position of the climbs and the layout of the stages whereas here, though there's more climbing there's actually a better opportunity for us. If we work hard, we get to Paris. This year, it didn't matter how hard you worked physiologically, we'd never get to Paris. I was sick in the end, but I don't think even if I was well I wouldn't have reached it. It's quite nice next year - I'm looking forward to it."

19. 02:54 Tour de France presentation on large screen

20. 02:59 Cavendish watching presentation

21. 02:17 SOUNDBITE (English): Mark Cavendish, British sprinter who won 30 Tour de France stages:

"Yeah I hope so. Just back on my bike now. Yeah, there's enough time to get health... to get fit, as long as I'm healthy so I'm monitoring my health at the minute and we'll see where I'm at."

(Journalist: What does the Tour de France mean?)

It's everything for me. It's everything for every bike rider. Even guys who don't ride the road, professional track riders always dreamt of one point or another riding the Tour de France. For me it's everything, it's my career, it's what I've built everything on. It's what I'll continue to do. It's the only reason I still ride a bike now."

22. 03:30 Cavendish leaving

23. 03:35 Wide pan from audience clapping to stage

23. 03:42 Audience listening

SOURCE: SNTV

DURATION: 03:47

STORYLINE:

Chris Froome and other riders reacted after the 2017 Tour de France route was unveiled on Tuesday (18th October).

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

All five mountain ranges of continental France will feature in next year's Tour de France, setting up a gruelling, three-week racing challenge that seems tailor-made for the climbing strengths of defending champion Chris Froome and his Colombian rival, Nairo Quintana.

In their quest to keep the 113-year-old race young, organisers have again unearthed fresh racing challenges from the geography of France, with new climbs and, on stage 18, an unprecedented mountain-top finish on the punishing Col d'Izoard high in the Alps - a rocky, hostile and lunar terrain that could be the final big battleground for the winner's check of 500,000 euros ($550,000).

Before that, on stage 12 in the Pyrenees, the Tour climbs to the Peyragudes ski station where parts of the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies" were filmed in 1997.

From its July 1 start in Duesseldorf, Germany, to the July 23 finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, the 3,516-kilometre (2,185-mile) route will wind over climbs in the Vosges, Jura, Massif Central, Pyrenees and Alps. Not since the Tour of 1992 have organisers made riders take on all five mountain ranges.

Paris, France. 18th October 2016.

1. 00:00 Tour de France riders arriving for presentation

2. 00:11 Chris Froome, three-time Tour de France winner, arriving for presentation

3. 00:19 Close up Chris Froome

4. 00:25 Mid of Chris Froome seated between Romain Bardet and Adam Yates

5. 00:31 Wide of Chris Froome seated between Romain Bardet and Adam Yates

6. 00:39 SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Froome, three-time Tour de France winner:

"Like every year this is an extremely tough, tough Tour de France to win. Only three summit finishes but a few very difficult challenging mountain stages. It definitely could make the race a lot more tactical in the mountains and not necessarily just about the strongest on the climb on the day."

7. 01:03 Froome on camera screen

8. 01:07 SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Froome, three-time Tour de France winner:

"It is certainly nice to see that Tour de France is returning to Germany, I think it's been 30 years now since the Tour was there. I think especially given the likes of a lot of the German riders in the peloton at the moment, we've got some really talented guys, guys like (Marcel) Kittel, (John) Degenkolb, Tony Martin. I'm sure for them it's going to be a great honour for them to be at the Tour de France with it starting in Germany again."

9. 01:38 Froome holding photo and posing with man for photographer

10. 01:46 Christian Prudhomme with officials

11. 01:50 SOUNDBITE (French) Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director:

"Yes, the stages from the beginning to the end where the Tour can play itself out, for the first time in 25 years, the five main mountain ranges. These last few years, we sometimes had three mountain stages in the same mountain range. Here, there will be a stage in the Vosges, two in the Jura, two in the Pyrenees, one in the Massif Central, two in the Alps, and a time trial at the beginning and another one nearly at the end. So it is made in a way it can play itself out everywhere and give an uncertain side to the race. That's what we are looking for."

12. 02:13 Christian Prudhomme with officials

13. 02:18 SOUNDBITE (French) Romain Bardet, French climbing specialist:

"Of course there are short stages with important differences of levels but there is no succession of difficulties and no third week as hard as the one last year for example." .

It is an interesting itinerary

14. 02:27 Romain Bardet being interviewed

15. 02:32 Pan journalists

16. 02:37 SOUNDBITE (French) Thomas Voeckler, French rider:

"I've been through everything on the Tour so what happens to me for the past few years is really like a bonus. I ride the Tour because I like it and I really enjoy the Tour De France. After, well I'll answer you after the Tour but if we win a stage with the team, or if I manage to, why not, win a fifth stage on the Tour, I'm not going to deprive myself. We saw earlier the 2016 retrospective: the various stage winners are not second rate riders, these last few years have been more and more difficult and let's face it. I'll be 38 next year. I don't have the legs I had when I was 30. The mind might still be the same but the body ages."

17. 03:16 Various shots of (from left to right) Thibaud Pinot, Romain Bardet, Chris Froome, Richie Porte, Julian Alaphilippe, Adam Yates and Thomas Voeckler on stage

SOURCE: SNTV

DURATION: 03:31

Reaction after the route for the 2016 Tour de France was unveiled in Paris on Tuesday (20th October).

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

Chris Froome fancies his chances of defending the Tour de France title on a route that should suit his all-around riding skills.

Two individual time trials and 28 tough climbs will be on the 2016 Tour de France's 3,519-kilometre (2,186-mile) route, which was revealed in France on Tuesday.

Froome, who also won in 2013, is strong both on climbs and in individual time trials, making him an early favourite for 2016.

An ascent of Mont Ventoux in Provence on Bastille Day (14th July) will test the best climbers.

Froome was the stage winner when the Tour last scaled the Ventoux's barren, 1,909-metre (6,263-feet) peak in 2013 and he will be eyeing that stage for another victory.

The Mont-Saint-Michel, a Benedictine abbey perched on a rock off the Normandy coast, will provide a picture-postcard start for the race.

The first stage ends at Utah Beach, where Allied troops landed on D-Day in 1944.

The first taste of the mountains will come on stage five, in the Massif Central.

From there, there will be little respite on the next 15 stages before the last ride into Paris.

The first of the time trial on stage 13, a day after the Ventoux ascent, combines two short climbs, long flats and a tricky descent over 37 kilometres (23 miles).

Riders hoping to win time-trial gold the following month at the Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro will be able to use that tough course to gauge their form.

After the Pyrenees, where the Tour will dip into Spain and Andorra, the final placings will be decided in the Alps and neighbouring Switzerland before the finish in Paris on 24th of July.

Paris, France - 20th October, 2015.

1. 00:00 Wide pan from media to riders in audience

2. 00:06 Close of defending champion Chris Froome

3. 00:11 Mid of riders

4. 00:15 Wide pan of conference hall

5. 00:24 SOUNDBITE: (English) Christopher Froome, 2013 and 2015 Tour de France champion

"I think it's, it's a great parkour (course) for the next year's Tour de France. I think it really does challenge in every aspect of cycling. The time trials, the mountains.... tricky technical descent also. So, I mean it really is going to take a complete cyclist to win next year's Tour de France."

6. 00:47 Various of Tour de France route presentation

7. 01:05 Mid of Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director, talking to journalists

8. 01:09 SOUNDBITE: (French) Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director:

"It is true that for those who feel physically strong but that are not too sure about their nerves, who are afraid that the pressure (of the race) can drop down, having a major stage starting from Wednesday (day five), well that will take off the pressure that they feel because they will be less together with others, because the differences between riders will be already established. I believe that this Tour is for those who dare."

9. 01:31 Various of presentation

10. 01:42 SOUNDBITE: (French) Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France director :

"Our will was that everything can be done at the last moment... with the mountain stage just a day before the end at Champs Elysees. We already did it couple of times, but this is the first time you will have a mountain peak and a descent (in the same stage). I insist that one should be good in climbing but also in descents in the incoming Tour de France."

11. 02:07 Various of riders on stage

12. 02:25 SOUNDBITE: (English) Mark Cavendish, winner of 26 Tour de France stages

"It's a grand tour, it always favours someone who can climb and time trial. I think the two long time trials will be uphill time trial and the hard one will favour an all-rounder really, like a grand tour contender. It's simple as, it's the greatest bike race in the World. As a sprinter, it's a very hard race. (It) Provides six opportunities for a sprint and apart from that it's really difficult for us."

13. 02:53 Mid of Thibault Pinot being interviewed

14. SOUNDBITE: (French) Thibault Pinot, 2014 Tour de France top young rider

"I am really happy with the parkour (course). I think that climbers will take pleasure with two time trials that are really difficult, but there is less danger than the last year. I think it will be nice."

15. 03:09 Wide of presentation.

Chris Froome on Tuesday (17th October) said the opening nine stages of the Tour de France could be dangerous for riders as the route for the 2018 edition was released.

SCRIPTING INFORMATION:

Defending champion Chris Froome can expect a stern challenge from Dutch rider Tom Dumoulin in next year's Tour de France.

Froome is chasing a record-equalling fifth victory to move level with Belgian great Eddy Merckx, French riders Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, and Spanish great Miguel Indurain.

Froome and Dumoulin won the three Grand Tours this year, with Froome adding the Spanish Vuelta and Dumoulin winning the Giro d'Italia.

The 105th edition of the Tour features a hilly 31-kilometre (19-mile) time trial through the Basque country on the penultimate day.

Froome is a specialist, but Dumoulin is the reigning world time trial champion.

The 32-year-old Froome is still in his prime, while the 26-year-old Dumoulin is approaching his.

The race starts on July 7 — a week later than usual because of the football World Cup in Russia — and opens with a flat 189-kilometre (117-mile) route for sprinters from Noirmoutier-en-l'ile to Fontenay-le-Comte in the Vendee region, on the Atlantic coast.

With the time trial returning after being omitted the last two years, Froome's Team Sky will be confident of creating early time gaps on Stage 3 — a 35-kilometre (21.7-mile) route starting and ending in Cholet in Western France.

But Sky faces tough competition, because Dumoulin's Sunweb team is the reigning TTT world champion.

The Tour route, which goes clockwise, features 25 mountain climbs — ranging from the relatively difficult Category 2 to Category 1 and the daunting Hors Categorie (beyond classification).

Eleven are in the Alps, four in the Massif central region and 10 in the Pyrenees.

The Tour also has more time bonuses on offer in flat stages over the 3,329-kilometre (2,064-mile) course.

The difficult climbs start on Stage 10, the first of three straight days of gruelling Alpine ascents.

But organisers have preceded that with a tricky ninth stage that could shake up the peloton.

It takes riders over 15 treacherous cobblestone sections: the highest number since the 1980 Tour, with nearly 22 kilometres (13.6 miles) altogether.

The Roubaix cobbles may perhaps trouble Froome.

The cobbles are followed by a rest day on July 16, and Froome had better make the most of it because the Alps start brutally the day after.

Stage 10 on July 17 has four difficult climbs on a 159-kilometre (98.6-mile) route from Annecy to Le Grand Bornand.

They include a punchy ascent of Montee du plateau de Glieres, featuring for the first time.

The third day of Alpine climbing begins with Col de la Madeleine, then Croix de Fer and ends with an ascent of l'Alpe d'Huez: three of the Tour's most well-known.

Dumoulin is not in Froome's class as a climber, but is not so easy to drop.

Whether he can stay with Froome through the Pyrenees, however, will prove crucial to his chances.

Three tough days of climbing in the Pyrenees starts with Stage 16 on July 24: a daunting 218-kilometre (135-mile) route from Carcassone to Bagneres-de-Luchon that follows the second rest day.

Stage 17 is short at 65 kilometres (40 miles) but cruel, with three consecutive nasty climbs, ending with an attack up Col de Portet.

Stage 19 has four ascents and then ends with a potentially treacherous 20-kilometre (12.4-mile) descent to test the concentration of tired riders.

Whoever is freshest after that will have a better chance of challenging Froome in the time trial.

The 21-stage race ends with its customary processional Sunday finish on the Champs-Elysees.

Paris, France. 17th October 2017

1. 00:00 2017 Tour de France winner Christ Froome walking towards his seat in front row and sitting between French cyclist Romain Bardet and double Tour de France winner Alberto Contador

2. 00:07 Froome talking to Contador

3. 00:13 Wide of road racing cyclists in front row with (from right to left) Mark Cavendish, Simon Yates, Nairo Quintana, Alberto Contador, Chris Froome

4. 00:18 Bardet

5. 00:23 Wide of conference hall with map on screen

6. 00:28 Wide of crowd

7. 00:33 Wide of map of 2018 Tour de France

8. 00:39 Attendees filming presentation with smart phones and clapping

9. 00:55 Wide of Froome recording video message

10. 01:01 Froome

11. 01:06 Tour de France logo

12. 01:11 SOUNDBITE: (English) Chris Froome, four-time Tour de France winner and reigning champion:

"The first 8 or 9 days up in the north of France without any really big mountains, could lead to a very nervous and very dangerous first part of the race especially when it's still very close together in the General classification and got the cobbles and a section of dirt road as well. It's definitely going to take a lot of preparation, a lot of homework to get ready for this year's Tour."

13. 01:41 Bardet on phone

14. 01:46 SOUNDBITE: (French) Romain Bardet, third place finisher in 2017 Tour de France:

"Clearly it's going to be (close) – I guess it depends on the weather, but even in dry weather, there's going to be a skimming of the pack and there will be some serious losses. It could lead to one or two racers taking advantage of it and build a strong lead, but in any case, there is going to be some damage. To me, a Tour de France winner must have some luck the year he wins, but also be capable of facing all these different terrains. It's going to be a key stage."

15. 02:25 Cutaway

16. 02:30 SOUNDBITE: (French) Warren Barguil, Polka dot jersey winner in 2017 Tour de France:

"It's great – a nice stage. 65 kilometres. People say 65 kilometres, but with three mountain passes. 65 kilometres on a flat course, we could do that in about 1 hour 15 minutes, but I think there, it'll be a two and a half hour race. Or I guess it will be two hours or two hours and a quarter. It's not going to be easy."

17. 02:50 Christian Prudhomme talking to reporters

18. 02:55 SOUNDBITE: (French) Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France General Director:

"There will be a determining factor for the teams since there'll only be 8 cyclists – the choice of the 7th and 8th racer will be crucial because it's divided in two halves with 10 days in the plain and 10 days in the mountains. A cyclist like Belgian Champion Oliver Naesen was a totally decisive element for Romain Bardet in the Romans stage. Who will be the Oliver Naesen in each team? The guy who will – or Wout Poels for Chris Froome at the Alpe d'Huez in 2015. The cyclist who will be decisive at a certain moment for his leader."

19. 03:27 Prudhomme on stage

20. 03:34 Conference hall

SOURCE: SNTV

DURATION: 03.38